Off Topic Post - 1661 Tax Day Witchhunt of Fofar Scotland - found while researching Dundee Token

TokenTinker

I came upon this piece while researching the commerce of Dundee, Scotland and it's environs out of curiosity over a 1795 Molison Halfpenny Token from Dundee. As it is Tax Day it thought the presumed power to curse a taxman dead due to lack of coin would be of some odd amusement to those either bereft of coin or at least of humble reason. My kindest regards to all and a wish for moderate reason for myself.

"The Forfar Witches" as found on the Ancestral Roots of Angus and Dundee Website

"The bustling market town of Forfar shares a terrible secret with many other parts of Scotland in the seventeenth century. The town was the scene of a terrible witch hunt, which resulted in the torture and execution of several local women."

According to the town council's records, the witch hunt appears to have been triggered in 1661 by an argument between Isobel Shyrie, a poor woman who was unable to pay her taxes, and Baillie George Wood, a tax collector. During the quarrel, Isobel cursed Baillie Wood. When the unfortunate man suddenly dropped dead, all fingers pointed at Isobel."
In those days, it was considered that there were three ways to spot a witch - she went by a nickname instead of the name she was baptised with; there was a mark on her body that was impervious to pain; or she practiced 'malefice', which was the use of supernatural means to do evil. Isobel was widely believed to be guilty of malefice, which was sufficient for her to be sent to the dungeon below the Tolbooth, situated on the road next to the Town House in Forfar town centre."
Stirred up by the burgh's zealous new minister, James Robertsone, the hunt was soon underway for the other witches in Isobel's coven. Helen Guthrie, Isobel's best friend and well-known for her knowledge of the healing powers of herbs, was next to be taken to the Tollbooth for 'questioning', along with her 13-year-old daughter Janet Howatt, who was judged to be a witch simply because her mother was a witch."
Helen knew the terrible fate that lay in wait for her now she had been named as a witch but she was determined to save her daughter. So she named names and gradually 'confessed' to the terrible things the coven had carried out, confident the Town Council would not execute her or her daughter as long as she was providing them with information."

The accusations flew: drinking in the graveyard at midnight; dancing on gravestones; digging up an unbaptised baby to concoct magic potions; performing rites of black magic on the beach at Barry, cavorting with the devil on the island in the centre of Forfar Loch. Soon Helen, Janet and Isobel were joined in the dark, cold dungeon by more women, who were all tortured mercilessly until they also confessed to their 'evil' deeds."
The first witch to die was Girsel Simpsone. However, it appears that this was more a case of a mob lynching than an execution as the Town Council records include a bill for a rope for the 'down-letting' of Simpsone from the top floor window of the tollbooth."
Janet Bertie and Helen Alexander were banished from the town - which was basically a sentence to a long, slow death from cold and starvation - while Christen Person had to promise to return to prison if anyone ever again accused her of witchcraft."
At least six suspected 'witches' were executed on the Playfield, which is now Victoria Street, in full view of the inhabitants of Forfar, who treated each execution as a day out. The women were strangled first and then their bodies burnt in a barrel of tar, with the heavy smoke blowing across the cheering spectators and right over the town."
Helen Guthrie was one of the women executed on the Playfield but, for some reason, her orphaned daughter, Janet, was left behind in the dungeon. In 1666, James Guthrie, a lawyer from Dundee, pleaded with the Town Council for Helen Guthrie's daughter to be set free. The council responded by setting the date for another trial and, as there is no note of a further execution, it can only be hoped that, at the age of 18 years, Janet was finally released from her dark and lonely prison."
The Forfar witch hunt was finally over. Although most of those accused of being witches met a very nasty end, a few survived and it is likely that their descendants live in the town to this day."
Fofar Witches' Video

MacCrimmon

Interesting that the devil and his minions look like Welsh. In that case the devil must be saying to the minister, "Llleyyt me go!"

TokenTinker

laurentyvan

Thoughtful thread.

TokenTinker

We are limiting ourselves comments to puns and pantomimes out of the deep appreciation we feel for this topic, Laurent. I'm glad to see you're touched as well.

MacCrimmon

Whilst touching on things-Welsh, I'm reminded of my times on the Highland games circuit and these marvelous "cookies". Simply fabulous, and a great accompaniment with a good stout or ale, or bitters, or . . . . .

Welsh Cookie Company

Hussulo

Living in Scotland, although the witch hunts were a tragic and morbid past it is still of interest. Another "test" to see if someone was a witch or a warlock was to tie them up and throw them in a deep pool of a river or lock, if they drowned they were inocent and if they floated they were guilty and burnt at the stake. Seems fair? either way your going to die.

TokenTinker

Sulo -

My 9Xgreat grandfather was magistrate of Springfield Massachusetts in the 1630s. It was his successor that presided over the Salem witch trials and I've the nagging sense that the discernment of witchcraft was one of Deacon Samuel's duties. Your method sounds like the dunkings they would have applied. As for the Fofar happening - I imagine that strangling these ladies first was to keep their souls from escaping with their last breath and then boiling them or burning them in barrels of tar was meant to confine that last breath in their condemned bodies and deny the Donald his prize. BTW, out of curiosity for the Dundee region and the reputation of the Gordons in particular, would you say that Angusshire showed a greater prevalence of religious violence through the "enlightenment" period than much the rest of Scotland? I ended up at the Fofar witchhunt after getting blinkered by the Gordon Riots.

Ever on tangent -
Clark aka TokenTinker

SaorAlba

Of course I collect Scottish, and this medallion was handed out when Charles I finally got around to being crowned King of Scotland in 1633, eight years after he assumed the throne in England:



The whole coronation, well it was something else in the end... read on...

A fascinating memento from Scottish and British history, this AR medal by Nicholas Briot was struck in 1633 to commemorate Charles I's very belated Scottish coronation that year. His coronation should have been much earlier, he ascended the throne in 1625, but he carelessly delayed said coronation until finally giving into demands that it be done in 1633. His introduction of Anglican liturgy into the coronation ceremony did little to endear him to his Scottish subjects, and things went decidedly sour thereafter. On his return trip to London his baggage including many crown jewels were lost in the Firth of Forth, just off of Burntisland. Subsequently alleged witches were brought to trial in London, on charges of causing the shipwreck. Things went down for Charles I from there on, both in Scotland and in England. This lovely medal, with a lifelike portrait of the monarch, was commissioned to Nicholas Briot, a famous and skilled coiner. This medal was struck in a screw press, and is actually much better detailed as a result. One of these medals was struck piedfort in gold, which was presented to the King, he kept it as a pocket piece until his death in 1649. The silver examples like this one were thrown by the king to the crowds at the coronation ceremony.

TokenTinker

Beautiful, fascinating and decidedly on topic while bringing us back around to the point of being here. Thank you. I love that so much can be related about both the issuance of the coin and the personal history of the piece. By the way - I prize the Old Pretender Reddite Medal you have on your site (great site too).

laurentyvan

I've always found this point of law interesting, especially given the governments of today; taken from Wikipedia:

"In English and Welsh legal terminology, a devil is a junior barrister who undertakes written work on behalf of a more senior barrister.

The work goes out in the name of the senior barrister, and the instructing solicitors are not usually informed of the arrangement.

The junior barrister is paid by the senior barrister out of the latter's own fee as a private arrangement between the two,
this being one of the exceptions to the usual prohibition on fee sharing under the Code of Conduct for Barristers in England and Wales".

Exceptions are always enjoyed by the ruling party...

ed for spl

TokenTinker

Well - to return to puns - the devil IS in the details.

laurentyvan

Agree, Wiccan because we can.