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/2161 Jonat Lucas

name of accused
Jonat Lucas
designated title
no information
Accused Reference
A/EGD/2108
Case date start
4/4/1597
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

  • demonic (secondary characteristic)
  • folk healing (secondary characteristic)
  • folk healing (primary characteristic)
  • Implicated by another (secondary characteristic)
  • white magic (secondary characteristic)
Characterisation Notes
Appears to have been implicated by Margaret Bane. The other accusations relate to her use of healing charms, and that she caused walls to shake and the devil appear in a man's sleep.

Qualitative information

Non-natural beings

Notes
Margaret Bane told the authorities that Lucas had attended meetings and had kissed the devil's arse and had sex with him in the shape of a 4-legged beast. None of it was confessed by Lucas, therefore not recorded.
  • Animal Devil four legged beast

Demonic pacts

  • no information

witches meetings

Notes
Bane described the meetings at the foot of the hill at Craigleuch, what occurred and where. None of it was confessed by Lucas but it was included in her dittay.

Meeting places

  • Craigleuch Foot of hill

musical instruments

  • Unspecified

Folk culture

  • Specific ritual acts
  • Sympathetic magic
Notes
Most of the dittay refers to her use of threads (coloured and cut) to cure illness or to identify the cause and predict outcome. On one occasion she used the thread and told the woman she was not bewitched nor did she have the fevers. The same woman complained that Lucas had made the walls of her house shake, and that Lucas had made the devil appear to her and her husband in the shape of four legged beasts. They claimed that Lucas had told her husband if he had any property that was not his he was to return it to their rightful owners and the Devil would stop appearing.

Counter strategies

  • no information

white magic

  • Prophesy

Elf/fairy elements

  • no information

Shape-changing

  • no information

Ritual objects

  • Thread

Religious motif

  • no information

Calendar customs

  • Halloween

Diseases or illness

  • Healing humans
Notes
None

Cause of witch's malice

  • no information

Other maleficia

Damage to property

  • no information

weather modification

  • no information

Notes
None

Other charges

  • no information

Notes
None

Plea

Claimed bewitched
no
Claimed possessed
no
Admitted lesser charges
no
No defence
no
Claimed natural causes
no
Notes
None
Case Notes
None
references
name notes
Spalding Club Miscellany Vol I, pp. 147-9, 153-6, 192. Records the dittay and sentence. Note by the minister of Kincardine O'Neil about accusations against her.