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/2264 Helen Isbuster

name of accused
Helen Isbuster
designated title
no information
Accused Reference
A/EGD/2200
Case date start
5/8/1635
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)
  • maleficium (secondary characteristic)
  • white magic (secondary characteristic)
Characterisation Notes
This one is all about folk healing and the fallout after failed or backfired healing attempts.
additional persons
name involvement notes
no additional persons recorded

Qualitative information

Non-natural beings

Notes
None
  • Male black man

Demonic pacts

  • Sex with a black man

witches meetings

Notes
None

Meeting places

  • no information

musical instruments

  • no information

Folk culture

  • Specific ritual acts
  • Sympathetic magic
Notes
She was accused of charming the 'meisses' [mice?] of Saba into going into a stack of corn where they all died. She orchestrated a wedding against a man's will and then his wife wouldn't lay with him. He consulted her mother and Helen who prescribed a ritual involving half a bannock bread placed under his left arm and water sprinkled in his bed. It didn't work, the man reproved her so she damaged his goods. She also gave a man a blue thread for protection. He also seems to have performed a diagnosis and unbewitching ritual that the dittay calls healing.

Counter strategies

  • Counter-magic

white magic

  • Love magic
  • Protective

Elf/fairy elements

  • no information

Shape-changing

  • no information

Ritual objects

  • Bannock
  • Water
  • Thread

Religious motif

  • no information

Calendar customs

  • no information

Diseases or illness

  • Animal illness
Notes
She made cows run mad. She damaged a man's goods after a failed white magic attempt.

Cause of witch's malice

  • Revenge

Other maleficia

  • Property damage

    • Damage to property

    • Whole Estate

    weather modification

    • no information

    Notes
    None

    Other charges

    • Charming
    • Superstition
    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
    private papers D20/2/16/1 See also J G Dalyell 'The Darker Superstitions of Scotland' Edinburgh, 1834, pp. 270, 307. The project did not check Larner's reference to this printed secondary source as part of the research.
    private papers D23/14/8 None