Here follows the author of the 'Just Reproofs' way of telling the story of the barbarous and cruel murder of Janet Corphat. She came to town under cloud of night with two men, and went straight to an inn where her daughter was serving. After some stay there, the two men brought her to the minister's house, who was visiting a sick child of one James Cook, a present bailie, where his servant came to him with Mr Gordon's letter; and, as soon as he had perused it, he bid his servant go tell them, he would have nothing to do with her, but since they had brought her to the town, let them take her to the magistrates; which answer, two men then present, have attested under their hands. On this, the men brought her to Bailie Cook's house, where the minister was, and the men meeting him coming down stairs, pressed him to take her off their hands, which he refused to do, but called the two next magistrates, and advised them instantly to set her off safe out of the town. On which the two bailies sent for their officer immediately, and the minister went off straight to his own house, and saw no appearance of a rabble, nor did hear of it, till the rabble had gone a considerable length; and after a little, he heard that the woman was got safe out of their hands, and the rabble dissipate, and he knew nothing of her death till the next morning.
When the officer came to the magistrates, they, on deliberation among themselves, resolved to imprison her till the next morning; and accordingly ordered their officer to do it. And as the officer was executing the magistrates' orders, the rabble gathered upon them, attacked the officer, and took the woman from him, with which, it is said, he did not acquaint the magistrates, that they might have taken other measures for the woman's safety.
This rabble did not flow from the inclinations of the people of the place, which is evident from the peaceable and safe residence two confessing witches had for two months time in the place since they were set at liberty, but from an unhappy occasional concourse of a great many strangers, some Englishmen, some from Orkney, and other parts, who were forward in it, and have since taken guilt on them by their flight.
As to the assertion with regard to those of Mr Cowper's family going along with the rabble, Mr Cowper urged to have his servants examined among the first, and they have declared before the magistrates, that they stole out in a clandestine way, that their master might not know of it, and he indeed knew nothing of it, and they returned very quickly and made no stay; nor do any of the witnesses examined insinuate any accusation of their having the least accession to any injury she met with, nor were they any other way concerned, than by looking on a short while with some hundreds of other spectators.
Again, it is said, 'that they first found her at Nicolas Lawson's house, and that she was killed out-right when they dragged her there again,' is as ill grounded as the rest of our author's assertions; for they found her not at Nicolas Lawson's house, and some of the persons examined have declared, that after she was brought to that door, she arose and put on head cloaths, and called to Nicolas Lawson to let her in; which, if she had done, she in all appearance had met with no more disturbance; but after this, we hear that some few of the rabble stole up secretly and murdered her.
The author of the Second Letter accuses the minister of encouraging Patrick Morton in carrying on the cheat, by reading to him the case of Bargarran's daughter. In answer to which, we shall give a short, but candid, account of matter of fact. In the month of May last, the minister, with a preacher, and a great many other people, attending all night in the room where Patrick Morton lay, and he lying meanwhile in a swooning fit, which was then tried by exquisite pinching, the minister and probationer falling into some discourse about Bargarran's daughter, took out the book, and for their own satisfaction, read only two sentences, and stopt. Several weeks after, when the minister was again attending in the night time, the lad being insensible, the minister, for his own diversion, read the preface, and some part of the process, against the witches, but had no reason to think he heard any thing, but on the contrary. And it is to be observed, when the committee of the privy council did accurately examine the boy in reference to this story, he still declared he never heard any thing of Bargarran's daughter's case read.
What he says of 'their obliging them to pay eight pound Scots to the town-officer,' is in many ways false. It is false that they were ordered by the magistrates to pay such a sum. It is false that they paid all alike. It is also untruth that any of them gave what they had provided for their winding sheets. Nicolas Lawson, one of the confessing witches, her husband voluntarily gave a small piece of unbleached linen to the officer for his fees; and this is all the ground for the story of their winding-sheets.
The author of the Just Reproof then proceeds to give an account of Mrs White and Isobel Adam. The woman brought from Anstruther was a Mrs White, an inhabitant of Pittenweem, who, through fear of being apprehended, fled thither to her daughter's house. This woman, whose cause is now warmly espoused by some, with no advantage to their reputation, and who is now insisting against the magistrates in a process for wrongous imprisonment, has been for many years a person of very bad fame. Some eighteen years ago, she pursued a woman before the session, in Mr Bruce the late Episcopal incumbents time, for calling her a witch, and succumbing in the probation. Mr Bruce urged her to be reconciled with the woman,—she obstinately refused,—using most Unchristian and revengeful expressions, which are to be seen in the session-register. Since the revolution, she desired admission to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, which was then denied her, because she still refused to be reconciled to that woman. Her scandalous carriage in refusing to cohabit with her husband to this day, who is a sober honest man, is generally known. This woman being accused by the boy as one of his tormentors, and delated by two confessing witches, and other presumptions of her guilt, the magistrates one morning sent their officer to the magistrates of Anstruther, desiring them on these grounds to send Mrs White to them, and the grounds of her imprisonment were sent in write to her, in her daughter Mrs Lindsay's house; and she being brought to Pittenweem, the two women which delated her, were confronted with her, in presence of the magistrates, a great many gentlemen and ministers, where they did accuse her to her face, and charged her particularly with being at a meeting in the Loan with the devil and the witches, and gave some binding tokens to convince her. By all which it appears, how little ground there is to accuse the magistrates for invading their neighbours jurisdiction, or load the minister with any concernment in the matter.
As to the other instance of one brought to Pittenweem at six miles distance, this was the young woman Isobel Adam. About the middle of May, one Alexander M'Grigor delated her for an attempt to murder him in his own house in the night-time, with several others whom he knew not; and there being some surmises of other presumptions of witchcraft against her, the minister hearing she was occasionally in the town, called for her, and advised her, before her father, if innocent, to take proper measures for her own vindication, which she undertook to do, and promised to return for that end on advertisement, which her father engaged to give. The noise about her still increasing, her father was desired, according to promise, to call her to the place, which he declined, growing jealous of her guilt; on which the minister advertised her, but in case she refused, a letter was sent to be delivered to the gentleman on whose ground she lived, desiring him to send her. So soon as the advertisement was given, she came voluntarily to her father's house in Pittenweem, and so there was no occasion for force.