I hope these poor soul's all have peace. I live in Dumfries & feel there should be a monument to them on the Whitesands. After all, there was a public apology to them, not that it makes an ounce of difference. Bless them. XXX
It seems to me that they were charged because they had property, or goods that someone else wanted. Perhaps people were jealous of what they owned. Witchcraft was a convenient crime.
I worked in the Scottish Records Office for my dissertation on several of these particular episodes of witch trials. One interesting thing about witch trials in Scotland is that the rate of acquittals was much higher than in other parts of Europe, and also that it cost a Presbytery or Farmtoun an entire year's wages to bring a witch to trial, so it was very important that the villagers truly felt that this person was a threat to their community. In this case all the accused were women, but in Scotland again, you had a higher rate of male accused than on the continent and England as well.
@blauth thanks for that. I didn't realise it cost quite so much, but did know more were acquitted than faced execution. People must've been terrified though. Thank you so much for watching.
