A little before harvest, Mr Ker of Kippilaw, a writer to the signet, being in Pittenweem, Mr Robert Cook, advocate, went with him to prison to see this poor woman; Mr Cook, among other questions, asked her, if she had not renounced her baptism to the devil; she answered, she never renounced her baptism but to the minister. These were her words, what she meant by them I know not. The minister having got account of this from Mr Cook, he sent for her, and in presence of Mr Cook and Mr Ker in the church, he threatened her very severely, and commanded the keeper to put her into some prison by herself under the steeple, least (as he said) she should pervert those who had confessed. The keeper put her into a prison in which was a low window, out of which it was obvious that any body could make an escape; and, accordingly, she made her escape that night.
Next day when they missed her, they made a very slight search for her, and promised ten pound Scots to any body that would bring her back. Mr Gordon, minister at Leuchars, hearing she was in his parish, eight miles distant from Pittenweem, caused apprehend her, and sent her prisoner, under custody of two men, on the 30th of January, to Mr Cowper, minister of Pittenweem, without giving any notice to the magistrates of the place. When she came to Mr Cowper, she asked him if he had any thing to say to her? he answered, No. She could get lodging in no house but with one Nicolas Lawson, one of the women that had been called witches.—Some say a baillie put her there.
The rabble hearing she was in town, went to Mr Cowper, and asked him what they should do with her? he told them he was not concerned, they might do what they pleased with her. They took encouragement from this to fall upon the poor woman, those of the minister's family going along with them, as I hear; they fell upon the poor creature immediately, and beat her unmercifully, tying her so hard with a rope, that she was almost strangled; they dragged her through the streets, and alongst the shore, by the heels. A baillie, hearing of a rabble near his stair, came out upon them, which made them immediately disappear. But the magistrates, though met together, not taking care to put her into close custody for her safety, the rabble gathered again immediately, and stretched a rope betwixt a ship and the shore, to a great height, to which they tied her fast; after which they swinged her to and fro, from one side to another, in the mean time throwing stones at her from all corners, until they were weary; then they loosed her, and with a mighty swing threw her upon the hard sands, all about being ready in the mean time to receive her with stones and staves, with which they beat her most cruelly. Her daughter, in the time of her mother's agony, though she knew of it, durst not adventure to appear, lest the rabble had used her after the same manner, being in a house, in great concern and terror, out of natural affection for her mother, (about which the author was misinformed in the first edition.) They laid a heavy door upon her, with which they prest her so sore, that she cried out, to let her up for Christ's sake, and she would tell the truth. But when they did let her up, what she said could not satisfy them, and therefore, they again laid on the door, and with a heavy weight of stones on it, prest her to death; and to be sure it was so, they called a man with a horse and a sledge, and made him drive over her corpse backward and forward several times. When they were sure she was killed outright, they dragged her miserable carcase to Nicolas Lawson's house, where they first found her.
There was a motion made to treat Nicolas Lawson after the same manner immediately; but some of them being wearied with three hours sport, as they called it, said it would be better to delay her for another day's divertisement; and so they all went off.
It is said that Mr Cowper, in a letter to Mr Gordon, gave some rise to all this; and Mr Cowper, to vindicate himself, wrote to Mr Gordon, whose return says, if he were not going to Edinburgh, he would give him a double of his letter. It's strange he sent him not the principal. In the postscript, he assures him, he shall conceal it to meeting.
'Tis certain, that Mr Cowper, preaching the Lord's day immediately after, in Pittenweem, took no notice of the murder, which at least makes him guilty of sinful silence. Neither did Mr Gordon, in his letter to Mr Cowper, make any regret for it; and this some construe to be a justifying of the horrid wickedness in both.
We are perswaded the government will examine this affair to the bottom, and lay little stress upon what the magistrates or minister of Pittenweem will say to smooth over the matter, seeing it's very well known, that either of them could have quashed the rabble, and prevented that murder, if they had appeared zealous against it.
I am sorry I have no better news to tell you, God deliver us from those principles that tend to such practices.
I am,
Sir,
Your humble servant.