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Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee 23 February 2022

23 Feb 2022 · S6 · Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee

Item of business

Continued Petitions

Witchcraft Act 1563 (Pardon and Memorial) (PE1855)

Claire Mitchell Watch on SPTV

Certainly. Another misconception is that the trials were religious trials, but they were conducted by the state, and that is why it is appropriate for the state to give an apology. Allegations would be made in the local community. All sorts of allegations were made, but they usually related to an ill befalling someone and, in some way, a narrative being connected with that person, whether they had quarrelled in the market or they had had a fight. Sadly, examples were as simple as seeing someone out late at night, or seeing someone dancing beside a fire. People might have been doing very ordinary things, but they were attributed to being a witch and doing the work of the devil. When an accusation was made, the accused was usually incarcerated in a local place such as the tollbooth. They were kept there for a period of time, remanded until they were questioned. Questioning took the form of keeping the accused awake, watching and waiting, and asking them questions. In a sense, Scotland was in advance of other countries at the time because they did not physically torture people as much as other places. Although there were instances of physical torture, in Scotland people used to keep the accused awake and ask them questions, not just for hours on end but for days on end. Of course, we know that that is one of the most insidious forms of torture, because people lose their minds when they are not allowed to sleep. We know about that because people have traced the records of people taking turns to sit and ask questions. We even have records of how many candles were burnt through the night, for example, because all those things had to be accounted for. When a confession was obtained, it would be used as the basis for the evidence. However, it was not enough to confess alone to the crimes. As people understood it, witches worked in covens, so they would not be acting alone. They would be asked for further names. People in delirium would, of course, give the names of friends and family, which, sadly, led to those people being brought in and the same thing happening. We can see why the witchcraft accusations would grow exponentially. 10:15 Once a confession was obtained, the state would prosecute the matter and the women would be brought before court. They would not be able to give evidence in their own right because it was not competent for them to do so. In particular, it was not competent for women to be witnesses in a courtroom. At that time, I do not think that it was competent for most, or any, accused people to give evidence, but in any event women were not competent witnesses. However, witnesses would be brought to court, somewhat in the same way as is done now, to say what had happened to them—if there had been a fight, they would say what had been said or what they had seen the accused do—and then evidence of the confession would be led. Then, as now, confession was a very powerful statement against self-interest. In the modern day, people confess to things that they have not done, even when they are not under torture. Other people may find that very strange, but we know psychologically that people confess to things that they have not done. In those sorts of cases, that would have been exactly what would have happened. Someone akin to a modern-day judge would then decide whether the person was guilty of witchcraft. The sentence that was imposed on people who were found guilty was execution. We see one or two instances of people being banished as witches, but if the law was being applied properly—which we imagine that it was, in most cases—execution would happen. People would be strangled and then their body was burnt, so there was no ability for loved ones to bury them or anything like that.

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Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee 23 February 2022

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