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/28 Janet Boyman

name of accused
Janet Boyman
designated title
no information
Accused Reference
A/EGD/17
Case date start
29/12/1570
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)
  • folk healing (secondary characteristic)
  • folk healing (primary characteristic)
  • treason (secondary characteristic)
Characterisation Notes
She predicted the death of the regent.
additional persons
name involvement notes
no additional persons recorded

Qualitative information

Non-natural beings

Notes
She called a spirit to help her heal, he came to her like a great blast of whirlwind. The spirit was the ghost of a woman who had taught her how to heal. It is possible that she too was a fairy?
  • Spirit appeared in a whirlwind
  • Male Fairy
  • Ghost Maggie Dewand

Demonic pacts

  • no information

witches meetings

Notes
She was seen in a great company of women by a sick man.

Meeting places

  • no information

musical instruments

  • no information

Folk culture

  • Elphane or Fairyland
  • Specific Verbal Formulae
  • Specific ritual acts
  • Unorthodox religious practice
  • Sympathetic magic
Notes
Used shirt for diagnosis. Brought the shirt to an elvish well. She charged the spirit in the name of the father, the son, king Arthur and queen Elspeth to remove the illness or take the sick man to them. She couldn't do a cure because it was past Halloween. Predicted the death of an infant because she got a blast of evil wind. She learned her curing from a woman in the Potterrow who had once cured her. She started her prayer with 'Blist Benedicite'. After she washed her hands at a holy well, St. Leonards, there came to her a man of our good neighbours. Predicted that the Regent would die. She bore five bairns while subject to the fairy for seven years and felt no pain.

Counter strategies

  • no information

white magic

  • no information

Elf/fairy elements

  • Changeling
  • Well
  • Good Neighbours

Shape-changing

  • no information

Ritual objects

  • Shirt
  • Herb
  • Water

Religious motif

  • Trinity
  • Prayer
  • Holy well

Calendar customs

  • Halloween

Diseases or illness

  • Rec. healer
  • Healing humans
Notes
Could heal children that were taken away with the fairy (?changelings) and many other diseases.

Cause of witch's malice

  • no information

Other maleficia

Damage to property

  • no information

weather modification

  • no information

Notes
None

Other charges

  • Charming
  • Sorcery
  • Necromancy
  • Incantation
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
Process Notes JC26/1/67 None
High Court Record Index No. 1 29/12/1570 None
Witchcraft Papers JC40/1 None