64 ([return])
[ Mather’s “Magnalia,” book vi. chap. lxxxii. The zealous author, however, regrets the general gaol delivery on the score of sorcery and thinks, had the times been calm, the case might have required a farther investigation, and that, on the whole, the matter was ended too abruptly But, the temper of the times considered, he admits candidly that it is better to act moderately in matters capital, and to let the guilty escape, than run the risk of destroying the innocent.]
The prosecutions were therefore suddenly stopped, the prisoners dismissed, the condemned pardoned, and even those who had confessed, the number of whom was very extraordinary, were pardoned amongst others; and the author we have just quoted thus records the result:—“When this prosecution ceased, the Lord so chained up Satan that the afflicted grew presently well. The accused were generally quiet, and for five years there was no such molestation among us.”
To this it must be added that the congregation of Salem compelled Mr. Parvis, in whose family the disturbance had begun, and who, they alleged, was the person by whom it was most fiercely driven on in the commencement, to leave his settlement amongst them. Such of the accused as had confessed the acts of witchcraft imputed to them generally denied and retracted their confessions, asserting them to have been made under fear of torture, influence of persuasion, or other circumstances exclusive of their free will. Several of the judges and jurors concerned in the sentence of those who were executed published their penitence for their rashness in convicting these unfortunate persons; and one of the judges, a man of the most importance in the colony, observed, during the rest of his life, the anniversary of the first execution as a day of solemn fast and humiliation for his own share in the transaction. Even the barbarous Indians were struck with wonder at the infatuation of the English colonists on this occasion, and drew disadvantageous comparisons between them and the French, among whom, as they remarked, “the Great Spirit sends no witches.”
The system of witchcraft, as believed in Scotland, must next claim our attention, as it is different in some respects from that of England, and subsisted to a later period, and was prosecuted with much more severity.
LETTER IX.
Scottish Trials—Earl of Mar—Lady Glammis—William Barton—Witches
of Auldearne—Their Rites and Charms—Their Transformation into
Hares—Satan’s Severity towards them—Their Crimes—Sir George
Mackenzie’s Opinion of Witchcraft—Instances of Confessions made by
the Accused, in despair, and to avoid future annoyance and
persecution—Examination by Pricking—The Mode of Judicial Procedure
against Witches, and nature of the Evidence admissible, opened a
door to Accusers, and left the Accused no chance of escape—The
Superstition of the Scottish Clergy in King James VI.‘s time led
them, like their Sovereign, to encourage Witch-Prosecutions—Case of
Bessie Graham—Supposed Conspiracy to Shipwreck James in his Voyage
to Denmark—Meetings of the Witches, and Rites performed to
accomplish their purpose—Trial of Margaret Barclay in 1618—Case of
Major Weir—Sir John Clerk among the first who declined acting as
Commissioner on the Trial of a Witch—Paisley and Pittenweem
Witches—A Prosecution in Caithness prevented by the Interference of
the King’s Advocate in 1718—The Last Sentence of Death for
Witchcraft pronounced in Scotland in 1722—Remains of the Witch
Superstition—Case of supposed Witchcraft, related from the Author’s
own knowledge, which took place so late as 1800.