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Issobell Young (c.1565 - February 1629) was a wife of a tenant farmer residing in the village of East Barns in the parish of Dunbar, Lothian, Scotland. [1] She was tried, strangled, and burned at the stake at Castle Hill, Edinburgh for practising witchcraft.
Issobell Young married George Smith, a portioner, who occupied a section of land for farming that is part of a larger estate. Issobell sold crops, cared for animals, raised four children, and managed the home. The family lived in a large household that included land and livestock, employing over fifteen members of staff to assist with farming crops and animals.
Issobell's neighbours accused her of often expressing "patterns of verbal and sometimes physical aggression." [2] Residents of East Barns believed she engaged in witchcraft for personal gain to secure higher status in the community by thrusting her fellow neighbours into misfortune, despair, and poverty. She rejected the claims, insisting that she was an "honest woman," [2] and that any misfortune that plagued her neighbours was solely from their own doing, idleness, or God's condemnation. She denied ever practising witchcraft and instead claimed that the conflicts between her neighbours and herself were of an ordinary nature. [3] Yet, George Smith, her husband, testified against her in 1624 for "attempting to kill him with magic after quarrelling about an unsavoury house guest." [4]
Furthermore, the historical record indicates that "forty-five of her neighbours and relatives, including her husband, testified against her, telling a story that unfolded over four decades." [5] Her husband testified against her; one son defended her. Despite her insistence on being a good, moral Christian woman that would not hurt or ill-wish her neighbours, she was found unanimously guilty on only one charge - witchcraft.
She was sentenced to death at Castle Hill, Edinburgh, where she was strangled and burned at the stake (c. February 1629).
Isobel Gowdie was a Scottish woman who confessed to witchcraft at Auldearn near Nairn during 1662. Scant information is available about her age or life and, although she was probably executed in line with the usual practice, it is uncertain whether this was the case or if she was allowed to return to the obscurity of her former life as a cottar’s wife. Her detailed testimony, apparently achieved without the use of violent torture, provides one of the most comprehensive insights into European witchcraft folklore at the end of the era of witch-hunts.
Janet Horne was the last person to be executed legally for witchcraft in the British Isles.
In early modern Scotland, in between the early 16th century and the mid-18th century, judicial proceedings concerned with the crimes of witchcraft took place as part of a series of witch trials in Early Modern Europe. In the late middle age there were a handful of prosecutions for harm done through witchcraft, but the passing of the Witchcraft Act 1563 made witchcraft, or consulting with witches, capital crimes. The first major issue of trials under the new act were the North Berwick witch trials, beginning in 1590, in which King James VI played a major part as "victim" and investigator. He became interested in witchcraft and published a defence of witch-hunting in the Daemonologie in 1597, but he appears to have become increasingly sceptical and eventually took steps to limit prosecutions.
Witchcraft in Orkney possibly has its roots in the settlement of Norsemen on the archipelago from the eighth century onwards. Until the early modern period magical powers were accepted as part of the general lifestyle, but witch-hunts began on the mainland of Scotland in about 1550, and the Scottish Witchcraft Act of 1563 made witchcraft or consultation with witches a crime punishable by death. One of the first Orcadians tried and executed for witchcraft was Allison Balfour, in 1594. Balfour, her elderly husband and two young children, were subjected to severe torture for two days to elicit a confession from her.
Elspeth Reoch was an alleged Scottish witch. She was born in Caithness but as a child spent time with relatives on an island in Lochaber prior to travelling to the mainland of Orkney.
The Pittenweem witches were five Scottish women accused of witchcraft in the small fishing village of Pittenweem in Fife on the east coast of Scotland in 1704. Another two women and a man were named as accomplices. Accusations made by a teenage boy, Patrick Morton, against a local woman, Beatrix Layng, led to the death in prison of Thomas Brown, and, in January 1705, the murder of Janet Cornfoot by a lynch mob in the village.
The Bute witches were six Scottish women accused of witchcraft and interrogated in the parish of Rothesay on Bute during the Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661–62. The Privy Council granted a Commission of Justiciary for a local trial to be held and four of the women – believed by historians to be Margaret McLevin, Margaret McWilliam, Janet Morrison and Isobell McNicoll – were executed in 1662; a fifth may have died while incarcerated. One woman, Jonet NcNicoll, escaped from prison before she could be executed but when she returned to the island in 1673 the sentence was implemented.
Beatrix Leslie was a Scottish midwife executed for witchcraft. In 1661 she was accused of causing the collapse of a coal pit through witchcraft. Little is known about her life before that, although there are reported disputes with neighbours that allude to a quarrelsome attitude.
Maud Galt was a lesbian accused of witchcraft in Kilbarchan, Scotland.
Margaret Burges, also known as 'Lady Dalyell', was a Scottish businesswoman from Nether Cramond who was found guilty of witchcraft and executed in Edinburgh in 1629.
Bessie Wright was a healer in Perthshire who was accused of witchcraft in 1611, 1626 and then again in 1628.
Alison Pearson was executed for witchcraft. On being tried in 1588, she confessed to visions of a fairy court.
Jean Lyon, Countess of Angus was a Scottish courtier and landowner, who became involved in a witchcraft trial.
The Witches of Bo'ness were a group of women accused of witchcraft in Bo'ness, Scotland in the late 17th century and ultimately executed for this crime. Among the more famous cases noted by historians, in 1679, Margaret Pringle, Bessie Vickar, Annaple Thomsone, and two women both called Margaret Hamilton were all accused of being witches, alongside "warlock" William Craw. The case of these six was "one of the last multiple trials to take place for witchcraft" in Scotland.
Violet Mar was a Scottish woman accused of witchcraft and plotting the death of Regent Morton, the ruler of Scotland.
Margaret Barclay, was an accused witch put on trial in 1618, 'gently' tortured, confessed and was strangled and burned at the stake in Irvine, Scotland. Her case was written about with horror by the romantic novelist Sir Walter Scott, and in the 21st century, a campaign for a memorial in the town and for a pardon for Barclay and other accused witches was raised in the Scottish Parliament.
Issobell Fergussone or Isobel Ferguson was a Scottish woman who confessed to witchcraft in Dalkeith, Edinburgh during the year 1661.
Anna Tait or Anne Tait, also known as 'Hononni', was accused of witchcraft in Haddington, East Lothian in 1634 and executed in 1635. Her case revolved around her feelings of grief and guilt which caused her suicidal thoughts for the murder of her first husband and the death of her beloved daughter following a botched home abortion.
Beatrix Watsone was accused of witchcraft in 1649 at Corstorphine Parish Church, Edinburgh, and died of suicide before trial.
Isobel Elliot, sometimes called Isobell Eliot, was a woman accused of witchcraft from Peaston, near Ormiston in East Lothian. She was tried as a witch in Edinburgh during 1678, and executed on 20 September 1678 at Peaston by being strangled and burnt at the stake.