The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft

1563-1736

By Julian Goodare, Lauren Martin, Joyce Miller and Louise Yeoman, January 2003

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Case Details

C/EGD/1094 Alexander Drummond

name of accused
Alexander Drummond
designated title
no information
Accused Reference
A/EGD/1082
Case date start
31/5/1624
Given case date
no information
Case commission
no information
case complaint
no information
case correspondence
no information
case chronicle
no information
other details
no information

characterisation

  • unorthodox religious practise (secondary characteristic)
  • demonic (secondary characteristic)
  • folk healing (secondary characteristic)
  • folk healing (primary characteristic)
  • white magic (secondary characteristic)
Characterisation Notes
It is all about folk healing (charming). He was being paid. It was said that he could cure all but present death. He made a direct challenge to the church saying he was more powerful than ministers because he could give people health (JC26/9 item 21). Maybe the mention of his familiar spirit was what shifted the case into witchcraft. The demonic consisted of hearsay rumours that his mother had given him to the Devil. The JC26/9 bundle has loads of information on specific words and cures used.
additional persons
name involvement notes
Adam Bellenden Investigator
Archibald Acheson Investigator
Thomas Hope Investigator
George Elphinstone Investigator
Alexander Colville Investigator
William Paton Investigator
James Drummond Investigator
John Graham Investigator
John Fairbairn (Freebairn) Investigator
James Tolmiller Investigator
John Rollok Investigator
James Edmonstone Investigator
Alexander Colville Commissioner
Adam Bellenden Commissioner
Archibald Acheson Commissioner
George Elphinstone Commissioner
Alexander Colville Commissioner

Qualitative information

Non-natural beings

Notes
Had a 'familiar spreit'. Hearsay evidence given in by a woman who said she heard Alexander say that his mother had given him over to the Devil (JC26/9 item 20).
  • Spirit a familiar spreit

Demonic pacts

  • no information

witches meetings

Notes
None

Meeting places

  • no information

musical instruments

  • no information

Folk culture

  • Specific Verbal Formulae
  • Specific ritual acts
  • Familiars
  • Unorthodox religious practice
Notes
Used a sick man's shirt for diagnosis of bewitchment. Healing for money. Used part of a root under a man's head for failed healing attempt. Told some sick people to seek their health from the suspected bewitcher 'for God's sake'. He performed an unauthorised exorcism, he said he would save the boy's soul. He gave the boy a leather pouch filled with rusty nail, bits of stick and roots. Used south running water, powders to make drinks. Told people not to eat meat on Fridays. Said to use water where 'ane Christian King had ridden over' to wash a shirt for healing. He kept a book of cures and had 3 special stones called 'slake stanes'. Drummond called his healing words 'holy orations'.

Counter strategies

  • no information

white magic

  • Love magic

Elf/fairy elements

  • no information

Shape-changing

  • no information

Ritual objects

  • Shirt
  • Bannock
  • Powder
  • Amulet
  • Nail
  • Water
  • Stones

Religious motif

  • Three
  • Trinity

Calendar customs

  • Barthills Day

Diseases or illness

  • Transferring disease
  • Removal bewitchment
  • Rec. healer
  • Healing humans
Notes
He could cure frenaters, madness, the falling evil, destraction, apparitions, st. anthony's fire, noli me cangre, canceris wormes, glengores. Use of shirt. Wide range of healing.

Cause of witch's malice

  • no information

Other maleficia

Damage to property

  • no information

weather modification

  • no information

Notes
None

Other charges

  • Magic
  • Charming
  • Sorcery
  • Incantation
Notes
charged with charming in RPC p. 104

Plea

Claimed bewitched
no
Claimed possessed
no
Admitted lesser charges
no
No defence
no
Claimed natural causes
no
Notes
None
Case Notes
He was first denounced as a rebel on May 1624 in Perth. He was investigated by the minsters at Dunfermline on 31 May 1624. The Presbytery of Auchterarder (Muthill) could not break him and he had a lot of support locally. So the request was granted and he was transported to Edinburgh and tried there. Three RPC entries discuss this. There was a posthumous campaign to clear his name as 'ane notable Christian and did all his wondrous cures by lawfull meanes' (JC26/9 item 5).
references
name notes
RPC 2nd S v3, p. 4 payment to Edinburgh jailor.
Perth Presbytery Minutes CH2/299/2, p 341. Vol 2 is a transcribed copy of vol 1. This reference is dated 20/8/1628 and notes that the Perth presbytery was to be on the lookout for Alexander Drummond suspected of using unlawful cures, charms and abusing of the people. The information came from the presbytery of Auchterarder (referred to as Muthill in the Perth presbytery records).
RPC 2nd S v3, p. 104 commission of investigation
Books of Adjournal JC2/6 fo. 292r-293v Also found in the High Court Record Index, no. 1 for 3/7/1629.
RPC 2nd S v3 p. 27 None
RPC 2nd S v3, p. 211 None
RPC 2nd S, v2 p. 536 None
RPC 2nd S, v3 p. 2-3 PC investigations
RPC 2nd S, v8 p. 454-455 This volume contains stuff from earlier that was not included in the regular series.
Process Notes JC26/9 items 1, 2, 6 -14, 16, 19-26, 29-32 Witness statements (in order of item #), dated 28 Oct 1628, 31 May 1624, 6 april 1629, 4 may 1629, ??, 8 Feb 1629, 28 Sept. 1628, 29 Oct 1628, 1 April 1629, 23 march 1629, 3 Nov. 1628, ??, 8 April 1629, ??, 28 Oct. 1628, 24 Oct. 1628, 22 Jan. 1629,18 March 1629, 18 March 1629, 17 Oct. 1628, 8 July 1629, 16 March 1629, 6 April 1629, 7 March 1629. (depositions taken from all over, including Culross, Dunfirmline, Madderty, Fossoquhy, West Weymss, Muthill, Dunblane, and Edinburgh)
Process Notes JC26/9 items 15, 17, 18x, 33, 34 confession texts. Dates in order of item #, 25 Oct. 1628, 12 January 1629, 26 Jan. 1629, 16 Oct. 1628, 18 Oct. 1628. (confessions given at Stirling, Edinburgh, Dunblane)
Process Notes JC26/9 items 3-5 letters written posthumously to get his name cleared by order of the crown. They were written by an unknown woman to her 'loving brother' John Bannatyne Justice-clerk. Dated from 6 Oct. 1646, 13 Oct 1643 (possibly 1646 again?), and 13 December 1646.
Process Notes JC26/9 item 28 witness summons.