Obs. 6th, You may wonder why all along I should say the minister and baillies? The reason is, because during all this narrative he exercised more of the civil authority than any of the baillies, and so continues to do, as you may see by the following late instance.

The baillies of Pittenweem being conveened before the Lords of Privy Council on the 14th or 15th of February, I am informed gave in to them a subscribed account of the murther; and to justify themselves, assert they had imprisoned several of the murtherers before they left Pittenweem. It is very true they did so, but they were not long from the town when the minister set them at liberty. This, I think, is exercising the office of a civil magistrate: perhaps the minister may say he did it by the magistrates' order left behind them; then I think the magistrates were mightily in the wrong to give in to the Lords of the privy council an account they knew to be false.

My Lord, this is not the tenth part of what may be said upon this subject, I hope some other person will be more particular.

I am,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's
Most humble servant.

AN
ACCOUNT
OF AN
HORRID AND BARBAROUS MURDER,

IN A
Letter from a Gentleman in Fife to his Friend in Edinburgh.

I doubt not of your being exceedingly surprized with this short and just account I give you of a most barbarous murder committed in Pittenweem the 30th of January last. One Peter Morton, a blacksmith in that town, after a long sickness, pretended that witches were tormenting him—that he did see them and know them—and, from time to time, as he declared such and such women to be witches, they were by order of the magistrates and minister of Pittenweem, apprehended as such, to a very considerable number, and put into prison. This man, by his odd postures and fits, which seemed to be very surprizing at first, wrought himself into such a credit with the people of that place, that unless the Earl of Rothes, our sheriff, had discovered his villany, and discouraged that practice, God knows how fatal it might have proved to many honest families of good credit and respect. Sir, however, at first many were deceived, yet now all men of sense are ashamed for giving any credit to such a person; but how hard it is to root out bad principles once espoused by the rabble, and how dangerous a thing it is to be at their mercy, will appear by the tragical account I give you of one of these poor women, Janet Corphat.

After she was committed prisoner to the tolbooth, upon a suspicion of her being a witch, she was well guarded with a number of men, who, by pinching her, and pricking her with pins, kept her from sleep many days and nights, threatening her with present death, unless she would confess herself guilty of witchcraft; which at last she did. This report spreading abroad, made people curious to converse with her upon the subject, who found themselves exceedingly disappointed. The Viscount of Primrose being in Fife occasionally, inclined to satisfy his curiosity in this matter, the Earl of Kellie, my Lord Lyon, the Laird of Scotstarvat, and the Laird of Randerston, were with his Lordship in Pittenweem. Three of the number went to the tolbooth and discoursed with her, to whom she said, that all that she had confessed, either of herself or her neighbours, were lies, and cried out, God forgive the minister, and said, that he had beat her one day with his staff when she was telling him the truth. They asked her how she came to say any thing that was not true; she cryed out, alas, alas, I behoved to say so, to please the minister and baillies; and, in the mean time, she begged for Christ's sake not to tell that she had said so, else she would be murdered. Another time, when the Laird of Glenagies and Mr Bruce of Kinross, were telling her, she needed not deny what they were asking her, for she had confessed as much as would infallibly burn her; she cried out, God forbid! and to one of the two she said, that from which he might rationally conclude, she insinuate she had assurance from the minister her life should not be taken.