Witchcraft -- England; Witchcraft -- Great Britain; Witchcraft -- Scotland
She said, that on the 4th of January last past, while the clay picture was
being formed, a black gentleman had come into her mother's house,
accompanied by Bessie Weir, Marjorie Craig, Margaret Jackson, and her own
brother John. When confronted with John she wavered, but John was no
nearer release for that. He was searched, and many marks were found on
him; and when found the spell of silence was broken, and he confessed his
paction with the devil as openly as his sister, giving up as their
accomplices the same women as those she had named. Of these, Margaret
Jackson, aged fourscore or so, was the only one to confess; but as she
had many witch marks she could not hope for mercy, so might as well make a
clean breast of it at once. On the 17th of January a portion of clay was
found under Jennet Mathie's bolster, in her prison at Paisley. This time
it was a woman's portrait, for Sir George had recovered by now, and the
witches were against the whole family equally. On the 27th Annabel made a
fuller deposition. She said that last harvest the devil, as a black man,
had come to her mother's house, and required her, the deponent, to give
herself to him; promising that she should want for nothing good if she
did. She, being enticed by her mother and Bessie Weir, did as was
desired--putting one hand on the crown of her head, and another on the
soles of her feet, and giving over to him all that lay between; whereupon
her mother promised her a new coat, and the devil made her officer at
their several meetings. He gave her, too, such a nip on the arm that she
was sore for half an hour after, and gave her a new name--Annippy, or an
Ape according to Law. Her mother's devil-name was Lands-lady; Bessie Weir
was called Sopha; Marjorie Craig was Rigeru; Margaret Jackson Locas; John
Stewart, Jonas; and they were all present at the making of the clay image
which was to doom Sir George to death. They made it of clay, then bound it
on a spit and turned it before the fire, "Sopha" crying "Sir George
Maxwell! Sir George Maxwell!" which was repeated by them all. Another
time, she said, there was a meeting, when the devil was dressed in "black
cloathes and a blew band, and white hand cuffs, with hoggers on his feet,
and that his feet were cloven." The black man stuck the pins into the
picture, and his name was Ejoall, or J. Jewell. For the devil delighted in
giving himself various names, as when he caused himself to be called
Peter Drysdale, by Catherine Sands and Laurie Moir, and Peter Saleway by
others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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