Alison Pearson (or Pierson) (or Alesoun Pierson) (born 1533, died Edinburgh 1588) was executed for witchcraft. On being tried in 1588, she confessed to visions of a fairy court.
Background
Alison Pearson was born 1533.
She lived in
Boarhills
Boarhills is a hamlet close to Kingsbarns in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. It is located off the A917 road, from St Andrews and from Crail, close to the mouth of Kenly Water with the North Sea.
History
Boarhills Church, built in 1866–67 ...
(Byrehill), Fife, near
St Andrews
St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...
, Fife.
She worked as a healer around the St Andrews area with a ghost of her uncle, William Simpson, as a spirit guide.
Simpson's ghost associated with fairies and a vision of him had cured Pearson of illness when she was a child.
Witchcraft
She was investigated for witchcraft in 1583 by
Patrick Adamson
Patrick Adamson (1537–1592) was a Scottish divine, and Archbishop of St Andrews from 1575.
Life
Adamson was born at Perth where his father, Patrick Adamson, a burgess became Dean of Merchant Guildry.
Adamson studied philosophy at the Univers ...
, Archbishop of St Andrews; however, when he was ill and others could not cure him, treatment by Pearson led to his full recovery.
Adamson's enemies claimed this was witchcraft and Pearson was imprisoned in St Andrews Castle, from where Adamson helped her to escape.
Scottish Ballad-writer,
Robert Sempill
Robert Sempill (the elder) (c. 1530–1595), in all probability a cadet of illegitimate birth of the noble house of Sempill or Semple, was a Scottish ballad-writer and satirist.
Very little is known of Sempill's life. He was probably a soldi ...
, wrote about Pearson and Adamson.
Investigation, confession and conviction
In 1588 she was again investigated and tried for witchcraft, which led to her conviction and execution by burning.
One of the charges against her was that "she had concocted for the archbishop a beverage of ewe's milk, claret, herbs, &c., making ‘ane quart att anis, quhilk he drank att twa drachtis, twa sindrie dyetis’ (Pitcairn's ''Criminal Trials'', i. 165)."
Her confession included details of being taken by "ane lusty mane, with mony mene and wemen" to the fairy court.
She said she had met the Queen of Elves, had been carried by a whirlwind, and might wake up somewhere unexpected. Yeoman notes that Pearson described losing the power in her left side and that such loss of bodily faculties was often described in witch confessions of the period as well as in the religious trance descriptions of late 17th century visionaries like
Barbara Peebles
Barbara Peebles was a Scottish Presbyterian, visionary and prophet known to have been active in the 1660s.
Visions and prophesies
Peebles' visions began in 1660 during an illness when she expected to die. She described the power going from her ...
.
References
Bibliography
* Bullen, Arthur Henry, "Adamson, Patrick" in ''Dictionary of National Biography, 1895-1900, Volume 01''
* Goodare, Julian (2002), ''The Scottish Witch-Hunt in Context'', Manchester University Press,
* Goodare, Julian (2018), "Pearson, Alison (Pierson)" in Ewan, Elizabeth; Pipes, Rose; Rendall, Jane; Reynolds, Siân (eds), ''The New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women,'' Edinburgh University Press,
* Goodare, Julian; Martin, Lauren; Miller, Joyce (eds) (2008), ''Witchcraft and Belief in Early Modern Scotland'', Palgrave Macmillan,
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearson, Alison
1533 births
1588 deaths
People executed for witchcraft
16th-century executions by Scotland
16th-century Scottish women
Witch trials in Scotland