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/JO/3014 Margaret Watson

name of accused
Margaret Watson
designated title
no information
Accused Reference
A/JO/2878
Case date start
9/6/1708
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

  • maleficium (secondary characteristic)
  • neighbourhood dispute (secondary characteristic)
  • refused charity (secondary characteristic)
  • refused charities (primary characteristic)
Characterisation Notes
She was investigated at the same time as the Ratter family, and appears to have been unpopular because she asked for charity.

Qualitative information

Non-natural beings

Notes
None
  • no information

Demonic pacts

  • no information

witches meetings

Notes
None

Meeting places

  • no information

musical instruments

  • no information

Folk culture

  • Specific Verbal Formulae
Notes
Cursed people but no record of what she said.

Counter strategies

  • no information

white magic

  • no information

Elf/fairy elements

  • no information

Shape-changing

  • no information

Ritual objects

  • no information

Religious motif

  • no information

Calendar customs

  • no information

Diseases or illness

  • Human illness
  • Quarreling
  • Cursing
Notes
Asked if she was a witch, but denied accusation. Was refused lodgings, later the woman of the house took bad dreams and was out of her wits. Watson agreed that she cursed people if they wronged her.

Cause of witch's malice

  • Refusal of alms

Other maleficia

Damage to property

  • no information

weather modification

  • no information

Notes
None

Other charges

  • no information

Notes
Accused was charged as being a 'deluder and abuser of the people', in 1708. In 1725 the steward found nothing that would infer the crime of witchcraft but that she was a deluder of the people and he intended to proceed against her.

Plea

Claimed bewitched
no
Claimed possessed
no
Admitted lesser charges
no
No defence
no
Claimed natural causes
no
Notes
Denied she could be a witch and not know it in 1708.
Case Notes
None
references
name notes
Shetland Presbytery records CH2/1071/1, p 155. None
Shetland Presbytery records CH2/1071/2, pp. 300, 304, 309, 312, 315. None