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/3059 Issobell Watsonne

name of accused
Issobell Watsonne
designated title
no information
Accused Reference
A/JO/2921
Case date start
21/4/1590
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)
  • demonic (secondary characteristic)
  • folk healing (secondary characteristic)
  • white magic (secondary characteristic)
Characterisation Notes
None
additional persons
name involvement notes
no additional persons recorded

Qualitative information

Non-natural beings

Notes
She confes ed to meeting the fair folk, then the devil appeared as an angel but also in the form of a human male, who she named. She confessed that the 'fair folk' and the angel offered to protect her if she served them.
  • Spirit as angel
  • Male as Thomas Murray

Demonic pacts

  • Servant
  • Devil's Mark on head
  • Devil's Mark on left middle finger
  • Anti-baptism asked to renounce god

witches meetings

  • Witches meeting
  • Food and drink
Notes
The meetings were with the 'fair folk' and attended by herself and several others including Richie Graham. There is a lot about food.

Meeting places

  • between mill and park
  • above Kincardine Hilltop

musical instruments

  • no information

Folk culture

  • Elphane or Fairyland
  • Food and drink
  • Specific ritual acts
  • Unorthodox religious practice
Notes
Claimed to have used rowan tree and a piece of a dead person's finger to cure the worm. Fairies offered her food but she refused it. Her husband took ill, then her baby was replaced with a changeling. She refused to feed it and threw it in the fire. She then promised to serve the 'fair folk' in return for her child. Said the saw Richie Graham at meetings with the 'fair folk' as well as several other people. While in prison she was visited by a man and asked to identify who had stolen his cow's milk. The man and the woman that Watsonne identified were questioned by the presbytery.

Counter strategies

  • no information

white magic

  • Finding lost goods

Elf/fairy elements

  • Group of fairies
  • Changeling

Shape-changing

  • no information

Ritual objects

  • Rowan tree
  • Hand (dead)
  • Fire

Religious motif

  • Angels

Calendar customs

  • no information

Diseases or illness

  • Healing humans
Notes
Accused and confessed to healing a man of the worm using rowan tree.

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
Stirling Presbytery records CH2/722/2. No pagination.