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/309 Helen Heriot

name of accused
Helen Heriot
designated title
no information
Accused Reference
A/EGD/298
Case date start
8/2/1659
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)
  • maleficium (secondary characteristic)
  • Implicated by another (secondary characteristic)
  • neighbourhood dispute (secondary characteristic)
  • not enough information (secondary characteristic)
  • not enough information (primary characteristic)
Characterisation Notes
None

Qualitative information

Non-natural beings

Notes
None
  • Male grey clothes with a grey cap, called himself Simon

Demonic pacts

  • Anti-baptism
  • New name Bessie
  • Servant

witches meetings

  • Witches meeting
  • Devil present
  • Food and drink
  • Dancing
  • Singing
Notes
They danced in a ring around the broadstone in Gallowhop. She asked the Devil to get amends of a soldier that quartered in her house, he agreed to get rid of the English man. She drank wine with Simon the Devil. Wanted amends of a wobster who kept her cloth over a year, and amends of a minister for a debt.

Meeting places

  • Lacost's house House
  • Gallowhop
  • Sandie's Hill Hilltop

musical instruments

  • no information

Folk culture

Notes
None

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
Notes
Wanted amends of people who crossed her from the Devil. Those people suffered.

Cause of witch's malice

  • Revenge
  • Debt

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
Process Notes JC26/26 Bundle near the end marked 'Witchcraft' Notes from local JP trial, no evidence of a commission. Also found in the High Court Record Index, no. 1 for 1/3/1659, 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.