“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.” It’s an immortal line written in a time of witches.It was first recited to James the VI of Scotland, later James I of England,in the first performance of Macbeth. This took placea meredecade after his own encounter with the witch Agnes Sampsonin East Lothian.It’s easy enough to see, isn’t it? A terrible storm, a series of terrible storms, have delayed and curtailed your voyagetoreturn with your bride from Norway – where they talk with some concern of witches.Somebody must be toblame,somebody must be using witchcraft to undermine his desires.Itcouldn’tsimply be badluck ora naturalhappening,James was arepresentative of Godinvested with The Divine Right of Kings.Somebody must have been out to get The King.Somebody must be in league with The Devil.
The Witch: Agnes Simpson
Agnes Simpson was sometimes referred to as the Wise Woman of Keith, but wisdom is oft mistaken for witchcraft in a time wheresuperstition rules over rationality in the national consciousness.A widow with surviving children, Agnes worked as a midwife and a healer in her community. Agnes Sampsonwasarrested,interrogatedand tortured in aprotractedfashion. Accountsstatethat she resisteda most painful torture of head compression for over an hour until the “Devil’s Mark” was foundand she confessed. Surely there is no otherreasonwhya woman might resistbefore breaking down in the face of pain, torment, and the abrupt loss of dignity. The accused was brought before the King for final confirmation, beforelater being taken tothegallowsshe shared with many other witches at Castle Hill. It was in this climate that Shakespeare wrote of witches, when men were believed to be led astray by the Devil, and something wicked did indeed come across Scotland.This is just one of the tales of witches we share on our Scottish Witch Trials Tour.
What Makes A Witch?
The truth is that spotting witches is harder than you might think. Obvious magic is sadly lacking today as it must have been hundreds of years ago.With that in mind, and conjured pots of gold orfountains of youthsofew and far between, onehas towonder how do we spot a witch?Is it by a certainnumberof warts on a chin orbeing a little cantankerous? Perhaps living alone or being a woman with too many opinions? What about cats?If we took a moment to think about it, a great many witches look like a great many modern women, don’t they?The truth is that spotting witches is harder than you might think. Obvious magic is sadly lacking today as it must have been hundreds of years ago.With that in mind, and conjured pots of gold orfountains of youthsofew and far between, onehas towonder how do we spot a witch?Is it by a certainnumberof warts on a chin orbeing a little cantankerous? Perhaps living alone or being a woman with too many opinions? What about cats?If we took a moment to think about it, a great many witches look like a great many modern women, don’t they?It is no coincidence that peaks in witch trials cameat times of political unrest. Be that the schism between Catholicism and Protestantism in the Reformation,at the changing of monarchs, or in the case of the spike around 1650 the shift in power away from the crown entirely. It seems that witch finding is as much a social ill as a supernatural one. Add in superstition, a need to explain poor luck, and a little bit of good old neighbourly conflictand the climate was ripe for a century of witches between1590 and 1690. Full figures have never been known, with estimates ranging between 2,500 and 3,500 put to death in total for witchcraft.
