TRIAL OF ISOBEL ELLIOT, AND NINE OTHER WOMEN.
Reading edition
Records of Justiciary, September 13, 1678.
In 1678, Isobel Elliot and nine other women were tried for witchcraft in one day. The articles of indictment against all of them were pretty much the same. Those exhibited against Isobel Elliot were as follows: That about two years ago she staid at home from the kirk at the desire of her mistress, who was a witch, when the devil had a meeting with the prisoner, her mistress, and two other witches; that he kissed the prisoner, baptized her on the face with an waff of his hand like a dewing, and offered to lie with her, but forbore because she was with child; that after she was kirked the devil often met her, and had carnal copulation with her. The prisoner and the other nine miserable women underwent all the legal forms incident to their unhappy situation among that deluded and barbarous people. They had been prosecuted by his Majesty's Advocate; they judicially acknowledged their guilt, were convicted by the jury, condemned by the judges, and burned by the executioner,—for having had carnal copulation with the devil!!!