The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft

1563-1736

By Julian Goodare, Lauren Martin, Joyce Miller and Louise Yeoman, January 2003

The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft logo

Case Details

C/LA/3038

name of accused
designated title
no information
Accused Reference
no accused reference present
Case date start
no information
Given case date
no information
Case commission
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case complaint
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case correspondence
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case chronicle
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other details
Arrest of C. Cauldwell (alias John Dickson) as a witchpricker

characterisation

  • not enough information (secondary characteristic)
  • not enough information (primary characteristic)
Characterisation Notes
None
additional persons
name involvement notes
no additional persons recorded
linked trials
name trial type link year notes
no recorded linked trials

Qualitative information

Non-natural beings

Notes
None
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Demonic pacts

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witches meetings

    Arrest of C. Cauldwell (alias John Dickson) as a witchpricker
Notes
None

Meeting places

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musical instruments

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Folk culture

Notes
None

Counter strategies

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white magic

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Elf/fairy elements

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Shape-changing

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Ritual objects

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Religious motif

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Calendar customs

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Diseases or illness

Notes
None

Cause of witch's malice

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Other maleficia

Damage to property

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weather modification

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Notes
None

Other charges

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Notes
None

Plea

Claimed bewitched
no
Claimed possessed
no
Admitted lesser charges
no
No defence
no
Claimed natural causes
no
Notes
None
Case Notes
Christian Cauldwell (sometimes spelled Caddell) alias John Dickson was idicted as a common oppressor for dressing as a man and acting as a witchpricker. She pretended to be a burgess from Forfar. She was held in the tolbooth of Edinburgh 30 Aug. 1662 and interrogated by the justice deputes. She mentioned two unnamed people she accused of witchcraft and many from six counties. (Estimate 2 witches from each county plus 2 for a total of 14 unnamed witches.) As a man she contracted with officials in Moray to be their witch pricker for one year. She was paid 6 shillings a day and £6 for every witch who was found guilty. She travelled and worked with a woman named Issobell Dick. She claimed she could tell witches by sight, by looking into their eyes and that she learned her skill by watching John Kincaid, a witch pricker active in the Lothians. She was accused of pricking 'many of his majesties leiges' in the sheriffdoms of Elgin, Forres, Nairn, Inverness, Ross and Sutherland.
references
name notes
Process Notes JC26/28 1, 3 official indictment
Process Notes JC26/28 item 2 confession
Process Notes JC26/28 item 4 contract with 'John Dickson' and the officials of Murray for him/her to be their witchpricker.
None None RPC [get the references!!!]