{"product_id":"digital-product-12","title":"A Relation of the Diabolical Practices of Above Twenty Wizards and Witches (c. 1697) - Anonymous","description":"\u003ch2\u003eA Relation of the Diabolical Practices of Above Twenty Wizards and Witches (1697)\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAnonymous · London: Printed for Hugh Newman, 1697\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWitch-pricking, enchanted effigies, midnight gatherings and a child's terrifying accusations: a rare contemporary window into one of Scotland's last major witch-hunts.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished in London in 1697, this extraordinary pamphlet records allegations, examinations and purported confessions arising from the \u003cstrong\u003ePaisley or Bargarran witch trials\u003c\/strong\u003e in Renfrewshire, Scotland. At the centre of the case was ten-year-old Christian Shaw, daughter of the laird of Bargarran, whose convulsions and reported afflictions were attributed to witchcraft. More than twenty people came under suspicion; seven were convicted and executed in June 1697.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUnlike a modern retelling, this is a surviving \u003cstrong\u003eprimary source\u003c\/strong\u003e written during the events themselves. Its language reveals not only what witnesses claimed, but how fear, religion, judicial authority and belief in the Devil shaped accusations of witchcraft in seventeenth-century Scotland.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eInside the original pamphlet\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe examination of accused witches:\u003c\/strong\u003e the writer describes the commissioners' proceedings, attempts to secure confessions and the use of witch-pricking to search for supposedly insensible marks on the body.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eChristian Shaw's alleged afflictions:\u003c\/strong\u003e detailed reports of fits, confrontations with suspects and supposed reactions to touch, prayer and the Bible.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEffigies pierced with pins:\u003c\/strong\u003e testimony alleges that figures representing particular people were fashioned and stabbed with pins, providing striking evidence of how sympathetic magic was imagined by prosecutors and witnesses.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Devil's gatherings:\u003c\/strong\u003e recorded confessions describe a mysterious dark-clothed figure, nocturnal meetings, music, dancing and alleged pacts promising clothing and food.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe accused and their accusers:\u003c\/strong\u003e named individuals include Margaret Lang, Katherine Campbell, Agnes Naismith, Elizabeth Anderson and members of the Lindsay family.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTrial and execution:\u003c\/strong\u003e the opening letter recounts the proceedings at Paisley and the sentencing and execution of seven accused people on 10 June 1697.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne particularly unsettling passage describes women being stripped and examined with needles in the search for a 'witch's mark'. Another records allegations of pin-studded images used to harm children. Such passages make the pamphlet a valuable source for historians of witch trials, folk belief, the law and early modern attitudes to magic.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAbout this edition\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis \u003cstrong\u003e44-page scanned PDF facsimile\u003c\/strong\u003e reproduces a historical copy of the original pamphlet, including images of the binding, its 1697 title page and the original seventeenth-century typography and spelling. The original printed tract comprises approximately 24 pages; the digital scan includes additional images and preliminary material.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHistorical context:\u003c\/strong\u003e The allegations and confessions were produced within a persecutory judicial process. Accounts of diabolical meetings, magic and supernatural harm are claims made in the source, \u003cstrong\u003enot evidence that the accused practised witchcraft\u003c\/strong\u003e. Some of those accused lost their lives. This document is offered for historical research and understanding, not as an endorsement of the accusations.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Ancestral Library | Hearthwise Herbals\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eHistorical digital facsimile · 1697 · Anonymous · English · 44 scanned PDF pages\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hearthwise Herbals","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64204763660618,"sku":null,"price":4.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1088\/9940\/2058\/files\/Screenshot2026-11-03090433.png?v=1793697005","url":"https:\/\/hearthwiseherbals.com\/products\/digital-product-12","provider":"Hearthwise Herbals","version":"1.0","type":"link"}