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/385 Beatrix Leslie

name of accused
Beatrix Leslie
designated title
no information
Accused Reference
A/EGD/374
Case date start
20/7/1661
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)
  • maleficium (secondary characteristic)
  • midwifery (secondary characteristic)
  • Implicated by another (secondary characteristic)
  • neighbourhood dispute (secondary characteristic)
  • neighbourhood dispute (primary characteristic)
Characterisation Notes
Her charges seem to have stemmed from disputes about her pock with her neighbours. She also had disputes about the death of her cat, and she seemed to have been a midwife, but it was the disputes that seem to be the crux. In her confession she was interrogated about her midwife practices, but she said there was no ill in them. She was delated by Issobel Fergusson

Qualitative information

Non-natural beings

Notes
Someone testified that they saw a strange cat standing on its hind legs (implying that it was Beatrix).
  • Male a half long lad
  • Animal Devil meikle brown dog

Demonic pacts

  • Sex
  • Anti-baptism
  • New name Bold Leslie
  • Servant

witches meetings

  • Witches meeting
  • Devil present
Notes
None

Meeting places

  • her byre while milking Barn
  • while ridding a horse to the coal hill Road

musical instruments

  • no information

Folk culture

  • Specific Verbal Formulae
  • Specific ritual acts
  • Shape changing
  • Sympathetic magic
  • Riding the dead
Notes
After a quarrel about Beatrix storing a pock in the house of William Young and Agnes his wife, they tried to appease her with ale. She drank but wouldn't speak. Later Beatrix ,as an apparition cat, attacked him, and their children were hurt in the coal pit. She said that after meeting the devil she was frequently carried in her sleep to the company of many brave souls. She practised definite rituals in midwifery. She stuck a baro knife between the bed and the straw and sprinkled salt and saying words.

Counter strategies

  • Appeasement

white magic

  • no information

Elf/fairy elements

  • no information

Shape-changing

  • Apparition cat

Ritual objects

  • Knife
  • Salt

Religious motif

  • no information

Calendar customs

  • no information

Diseases or illness

  • Human death
  • Quarreling
  • Cursing
  • Healing animals
  • Midwifery
Notes
Quarrelled and cursed, harm followed. The two wifes that suffered harm had also killed Beatrix's cat. The coal pit collapsed The deaths were in revenge for killing her cat. Tried to heal her cow by rubbing a sick woman's shirt on it.

Cause of witch's malice

  • Revenge

Other maleficia

  • Property damage

    • Damage to property

    • Coal Pit
    • Buildings

    weather modification

    • no information

    Notes
    Burned down a house

    Other charges

    • Sorcery
    • Charming
    Notes
    None

    Plea

    Claimed bewitched
    no
    Claimed possessed
    no
    Admitted lesser charges
    no
    No defence
    no
    Claimed natural causes
    no
    Notes
    She claimed that the Devil never promised her anything and that she was prone to fits of madness.
    Case Notes
    She was accused of causing death through the collapse of the coal pit. She must have lived near the pit and been a part of the pit community?
    references
    name notes
    Books of Adjournal JC2/11; JC2/10 fo. 10v-17v JC2/10 and 2/11 are exactly the same text! Except the sederunt in JC2/10 doesn't say that the trial happened in Dalkeith. Also found in the High Court Record Index, no. 1 for 3/8/1661, this index did not distinguish between circuit and high court cases. This list of names was added in the margins with a modern hand, no indication of where the person got the list.
    High Court Process Notes JC26/27/9 item 4 and item 5 draft of JC2 trial. Item 5 is a continuation of item 4
    High Court Process Notes JC26/27/9 item 9 None
    High Court Process Notes JC26/27/9 item 13 None
    High Court Process Notes JC26/27/9 item 19 witness statements during the trial
    High Court Process Notes JC16/27/9 item 20 witnesses, bad handwriting, mostly repeat of information in other documents. Seems to be a draft of the books of adjournal text.