Minutes of 24th September, ordains Mr James Miller to ride to Preston for the man that tries the witches. The expence to be paid by the Town and Session.
September 8th,
12. Compeared Isobel Hay, spouse to Alexander Law, against Alison Dick, who being sworn, deponed, that she having come in to her house, her husband being newly sailed, she craved some money of her, which she refused, and boasted her. The said Alison said, It shall gang wair geats; and that same voyage, her husband had great loss. And thereafter, the said Alison came in to her house, she being furth, and took her sister by the hand, and since that time, the maiden had never been in her right wits.
13. William Bervie declared, that Robert Whyt having once stricken William Coke, Alison Dick his wife, came to the said Robert, and said, Wherefore have ye stricken my husband? I shall cause you rue it. The said Robert replying, What sayest thou? I shall give you as much—you witch. She answered, 'Witches take the wit and the grace from you;' and that same night, he was bereft of his wits.
14. Janet Whyt, daughter to the said Robert, compearing, affirmed the said dittay to be true upon her oath. And added, that she went to the said Alison, and reproved her, laying the wyt of her father's sickness upon her. Let him pay me then, and he will be better; but if he pay me not, he will be worse; for there is none that does me wrong, but I go to my god and complains upon them, and within 24 hours I will get amends of them. The said Janet Whyt declared, that Alison Dick said to her servant, Agnes Fairlie, I have gotten a grip of your gudwife's thigh; I shall get a grip of her leg next; the said Janet having burnt her thigh before with lint: and thereafter she has taken such a pain in her leg, that she can get no remedy for it. Whilk the said Agnes Fairlie deponed upon her great oath to be true.
15. Alison Dick herself declared, that David Paterson, skipper, having struck William Coke her husband, and drawn him by the feet, and compelled him to bear his gear aboard, the said William cursed the said David, and that voyage he was taken by the Dunkirkers. Also, at another time thereafter, he compelled him to bear his gear aboard, and a captain's who was with him, and when the captain would have paid him, the said David would not suffer him; but he himself gave him what he liked. The said William cursed the said David very vehemently; and at that time he himself perished, his ship, and all his company, except two or three. Also she declared, that when his own son sailed in David Whyt's ship, and gave not his father his bonnallie,[11] the said William said, What? Is he sailed, and given me nothing? The devil be with him; if ever he come home again, he shall come home naked and bare; and so it fell out. For John Whyt, who had that ship freighted to Norway, and another wherein himself was, declared, that they had very foul weather; and the ship wherein the said young William Coke was, perished; and he saved all the men in the ship wherein he was himself. And albeit the storm increased two days before the perishing of the said ship, and six days after, yet the two hours space in which they were saving the men, it was so calm in that part of the sea, that they rowed from one ship to the other with two oars, and the sea was all troublesome about them. And the said William Coke the younger, was the first man that came a shipboard.
Paction.—The same day, Alison Dick being demanded by Mr James Simson, minister, when, and how, she fell in covenant with the devil? She answered, her husband mony times urged her, and she yielded only two or three years since. The manner was thus—He gave her, soul and body, quick and quidder full to the devil, and bade her do so. But she in her heart said, God guide me. And then she said to him, I shall do any thing that ye bid me: and so she gave herself to the devil in the foresaid words.—This she confessed about four hours at even, freely, without compulsion, before Mr James Simson, minister, William Tennent, baillie, Robert French, town-clerk, Mr John Malcolme, schoolmaster, William Craig, and me, the said Mr James Miller, writer hereof.
October 15th.
16. The which day, compeared Christian Ronaldson, against Alison Dick, who, in her presence being sworn, deponed, that she having set an house to the said Alison, and when the gudman came home he was angry, and said, he would not have the devil to dwell above him in the closs; and he went and struck up the door, and put forth the chimney that she put in it. And thereafter, Alison came to the said Christian, and chopped upon her shoulder, and said to her, Christie, your gudman is going to sail, and he has ane stock among his hands, but ere long, his stock shall be as short as mine. And so it fell out, for he was casten away in David Whyt's ship, and saved nothing.
October 22d.