In the 17th century, Forfar was a typical tiny Scottish town. It was very secluded as it was bordered on three sides by a loch or marsh. Nevertheless its location meant that it served as a market town for the region, where fresh fish and meat were sold alongside manufactured items like the shoes that made the area famous.
Castle Street and the High Street were the two main streets that crossed there. The tollbooth, where local grievances would be heard, and the market were located at the intersection. The place was quite smelly, dirty and crowded. It was a small community where everyone knew one other’s business and where grudges were passed down through generations.
And another legend associated with the area was that of the Forfar witches. They were mostly vulnerable women from low-income families, women like Elspeth Bruce or widows like Katherine Porter. These women became the target of religious persecution, and were put on trial for their lives.
All it took was to be a little different. Epilepsy was viewed as evidence of demonic possession, or a squint was known as the “evil eye” and associated with Satan. Midwives were frequently accused: if they had the power to bring life into the world, they might choose to kill it. The same was true for women who were familiar with herbal medication.
The Forfar Witchhunts
The Forfar witch hunts would not have continued as long or included as many people if it had not been for one woman, Helen Guthrie. In this tale of prejudice and intolerance, she was central. Helen, who admitted to killing her step-sister when they were both young, was a really wicked and drunken person.
Along with 11 other people, including Isobel Shyrie, Helen Alexander, Girsel Simpsone, Agnes Spark, Katherine Porter, John Tailyeour, and Janet Stout, Helen and her 13-year-old daughter Janet Howat were accused of being Forfar witches. Helen however would turn this to her advantage assisting the witch hunters in discovering new witches. She achieved this by asserting that she could recognize another witch by looking at her.
- The Salem Witch Trials and Ergot: Mushroom Madness?
- The Book of Shadows: Is There a Secret Witches’ Spellbook?
She promised to assist the witch hunters only if they did not punish her. She was selected as the prosecution’s key witness. She provided them with a huge amount of material, almost all fictional.
She mentioned stories of drunken midnight celebrations in Forfar Kirkyard, tomb vandalism, cannibalism, a ship sinking at Carnoustie, and bridge damage at Cortachy. She bragged about her witchcraft skills and claimed the devil had attempted to lift her through the rafters and out of the tollbooth. If the watchmen hadn’t been so vigilant, she claimed, she might have escaped.
Forty-two town citizens were imprisoned and tortured in total during the Forfar Witch Trials, which occurred between 1661 and 1663, on the grounds of witchcraft. Over the three years, 22 women found guilty of the crime were put to death.
Alexander Robertson, the local minister, had started a witch-hunt in 1661. In this trial, the tollbooth in the town recorded the arrests of over forty accused Forfar witches. The notary would record the confession after the ministers visited the accused in jail and questioned them.
If the notary’s certificate contained information that coincided with the basic elements of witchcraft; a demonic connection, meetings with the devil, renunciation of baptism, maleficium, and harmful acts committed against others, the witches were punished and put to death. Typically by being strangled and then burned.
A Terrible Fate
The Tolbooth in Forfar served as a terrible prison facility for the witch suspects. They were held in freezing, dark conditions amidst being captured at the start of winter. They were deprived of sleep, warmth, and light for weeks or even months. They were also stabbed with long, thin pins all over their body to uncover their witch’s marks.
John Kincaid, a Tranent employee, carried out the proddings. He received an honorary burgess-ship from Forfar in recognition of his efforts. Some witch prodders however were found to be con artists who “manufactured” witches using retractable pins.
In the latter half of 1662, Helen Guthrie outlived her usefulness to the witch hunters. Her death occurred simultaneously as the Privy Council dismissed Alexander Robertson as a minister due to his excessive witch-hunting. In December 1662, Helen Guthrie was the final witch to be burned at stake in Forfar.
Some Forfar Witches were still detained in the tollbooth, including Janet, Helen’s teenage daughter, and Elspeth Bruce. The last thing that is known about Janet is a request in the Privy Council’s records pleading with them to order the Town Council to release her. She had been on trial, but no one spoke in her defense. The Privy Council directs that another trial might be held for her to be released.
The suspected witches didn’t readily confess, though. It was normal practice to subject the accused to what is now known as torture to obtain a confession of guilt. Thumbscrews and branks, often called a scold’s bridle or a tongue-depressor, used to keep suspects silent, are common items in museums across Scotland.
Additionally, various less obvious forms of torture, including light deprivation and awakening, were applied to the suspected Scottish witches. Forfar Witches were purposefully stopped from sleeping during “waking” or sleep deprivation. Local guards took turns keeping the accused in the tollbooth. The guards’ responsibility was to march the prisoners up and down the prison whenever they fell asleep.
A Memorial Too Late
A Scottish couple built a memorial to honor the 22 “witches” who perished when the witch-hunting craze overpowered their city. When Mark and Marie Cashley discovered how regularly widowed, or destitute women were singled out, tortured, and murdered in the peaceful Angus market town of Forfar in the 17th century, they were horrified.
They were even more shocked that there was no memorial to the innocent women who had died during some of Scotland’s most recent witch hunts. In honor of the witches, they built a drystone “cauldron” adjacent to a public park and hired a stonemason to create a memorial stone.
Top Image: Forfar saw 22 women hanged in just three years for being witches as the town became caught up in the hysteria. Source: Justinas / Adobe Stock.
By Bipin Dimri
References
